There'll be no more death in the afternoon for viewers of Spain's public broadcaster.

State-run Television Espanola has quietly pulled live coverage of bullfighting from its programming, eliminating free TV access to live fights.

Bullfighter Manuel Jesus fights in Pamplona in July. Bullfights are now available only on pay TV and cable stations in Spain.
(Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press)

Once a national signature sport, bullfighting has slipped in popularity in Spain and been met by complaints that it is too violent for children.

Taped highlights are available on late-night programs and many pay TV or cable channels offer live events.

But Television Espanola — whose first broadcast in 1948 was a bullfight in Madrid — has no live fights for the first time this season.

"We think it is awful," said legislator Juan Manuel Albendea of the centre-right Popular Party after learning of the change.

"Bullfighting is a spectacle that is alive and spectators have a right to see it," he said, adding that it is integral to Spanish culture.

He said the party will press the government on the issue when the legislature begins sitting this fall.

Bullfight promoters say dropping live broadcasts is unfair to older people who cannot afford to go to bullfights.

The sport, described so eloquently by Ernest Hemingway in Death in the Afternoon, still draws 65 million people annually, promoters said.

But bullfighting has few young followers in Spain and most audiences are middle-aged or older.

While there is no move to ban the sport nationwide, some cities, such as Barcelona, have stopped local bullfighting and animal rights groups have lobbied against it.

Television Espanola issued a statement this week saying it respects a voluntary, industry-wide code that limits on-screen violence from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. to protect children. Bullfights often start at 6 p.m.

It also said broadcast rights to the fights were getting too expensive.

Juan Belmonte, a critic for TV station Canal Sur in Seville said that argument is specious, as the broadcaster spends much more for soccer games, popular with young crowds, than it does on bullfighting.

Bullfighting on state-run TV was profitable and had decent ratings, he said.